Baking | The Mindfulness Kitchen

Vegan Chocolate Cake

By Emma Hawkins | January 2, 2019 | Comments 0 Comment

It’s 2019. Everything’s squeaky fresh and everything’s vegan! (For this month at least). I have 9 delish vegan recipes coming your way and then depending on how I like the whole vegan thing I might carry on with it or go back to being a chill veggie. That said, it’s only been 1.5 days and I’ve been hungry and staring at every non vegan thing in my kitchen for most of that time. But it’s gonna be great. I’ve got hummus, I’ve got aubergines, and I’ve got some sweet wonders like this chocolate cake to keep me going!

I actually first came across this way of making a cake a couple of years ago before I even considered going vegan, and it was so good that I didn’t realise it had no milk, eggs etc in it. It also doesn’t require lots of random hard-to-find ingredients like lots of vegan foods do, all you need is just a couple of avocados and you’re good to go! I also cannot stress enough that this is a hella good cake in it’s own right – this has actually become my go-to chocolate cake because it tastes so insanely good. So if the first thing you think of when someone says vegan is a bowl full of bland vegetables try whipping up one of these!

Recipe

Serves 10-12

Time: 2 hours

Ingredients

For the cake

Dairy free spread for greasing
2 Small avocados (about 150g)
300g Caster sugar
350g Plain flour
60g Cocoa powder
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp Baking powder
400ml Soya milk
150ml Vegetable oil
2 tsp Vanilla extract

For the icing

70g Ripe avocado
100g Dairy free spread
200g Dark chocolate (dairy free)
125ml Soya milk
25g Cocoa powder
200g Icing sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 170˚C. Line two 20cm sandwich tins with dairy free spread and baking paper.
Put the avocado flesh into a bowl and puree it with a hand blender. Then put the avocado through a sieve into another big bowl.
Add the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, bicarb, baking powder, milk, oil, vanilla and a pinch of salt to the avocado and whisk together until smooth and velvety.
Pour the mixture into the two tins and bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and springy. (A skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean). Leave to cool for a few minutes and then turn the cakes out onto a wire rack.
Now make the icing. Put the avocado and sunflower spread into a large bowl and beat until smooth. Pass the mixture through a sieve and then set aside for now.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and then leave to cool for a couple of minutes.
Put the dairy-free milk into a pan and bring to a simmer. Put the cocoa powder into a bowl and pour over the milk, whisking until a smooth mixture forms.
Add the avocado, icing sugar, melted chocolate and vanilla and beat again until the mixture is thick, smooth and shiny.
Put one of the cooled cakes onto a plate. Spread over half the icing, then top with the other sponge and the rest of the icing. Serve!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Cherry and Marzipan Flower Bread

By Emma Hawkins | December 30, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

It’s the last post of the year and so I decided to go for this fun-to-make flower bread thing to kick off 2019! Bread’s one of those massively underrated bakes that very few people make themselves, even though its pretty easy and fun to do. By making your own you can also explore breads with really interesting flavours and fillings so you can branch out from the classic plain white loaf and into the colourful world of flavoured bread. Yes it does take some time to make, but it’s more just waiting for it to rise than actually working on it constantly. So if you’re yet to figure out your new years resolutions maybe you could set out to learn how to make bread? I promise you won’t regret it!

Speaking of new years resolutions…

I’ve always been someone who’s loved fresh starts, not necessarily because I screw up so badly I need them all the time, but just because for some reason they make it easier to start something with ommph. For example I can never start a diet mid-week or start going to bed earlier on a random day. So when new year comes around it’s the perfect opportunity for me to look at everything I’m doing wrong in my life and try to sort it out a bit. Of course it never works and I hit December realising how over-optimistic I was last year about what I could achieve, but it never stops me from making them.

Recently I’ve been really getting into Ted talks and on one of them a guy listed some top tips for new years resolutions in order to optimise life enjoyment and productivity. Sounds even more optimistic than the usual gumph we put on our lists but I thought this year I’d try it and see at the end of the year if it did make things more interesting. For example he recommended that we don’t start our new years with ‘I will not do this’ or the aim to do something we’re not actually interested in doing. Yeah running everyday would be great, but if you hate running it’s not the best start to 2019. Instead we should aim to go places we want to go, learn skills we want to learn, and spend more time with the people we want to spend time with. So if I can pass on any advice for the new year it would be to a) make one of these (it really does taste super good!) and b) start the new year with the aim of doing some fun things that you want to do!

Recipe

Serves 8

Time: 2 hours, plus proving and baking time

Ingredients

150g Frozen cherries (or mixed fruit)
3 tbsp Cherry jam (or mixed fruit)
3 tbsp Chambord (or other fruity liqueur like crème de cassis or kirsch)
200g Marzipan
1 Egg, beaten
2 tbsp Demerara sugar

For the dough

500g Strong white bread flour
10g Salt
30g Caster sugar
14g Fast action dried yeast
40g Butter
2 Large eggs
50ml Milk
Olive oil for greasing

Method

Begin by making the dough. Put the flour, salt, sugar and yeast into a bowl and mix everything together. Make sure you don’t put the salt directly on top of the yeast or you could end up deactivating the yeast
Add the butter, eggs, milk and 100ml water to the mixture. Stir until combined, adding a little more water if needed to bring the dough together.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes).
Form the dough into a ball and then put it into a large clean bowl, greased slightly with clingfilm. Cover with clingfilm and then set aside to prove for around an hour, until doubled in size.
Now prepare the filling. Put the cherries into a pan with the chambord (or tipple of choice) and the cherry jam and then bring to a gentle simmer. Leave for 5 minutes, then puree with a hand blender and take off the heat. Whilst the puree is cooling cut the marzipan into 36 thin slices.
Butter a 24cm pie dish with slopping sides, or a cake tin if you don’t have one.
Turn the dough out onto a worktop and knead for 10-15 seconds to knock the air out. Then split the dough into 4.
Place one of your dough pieces on a lightly floured surface and then cover the other pieces you’re not using with cling film. Roll the dough out to a disc about 4mm thick. Then cut out 7cm rounds from the dough. Keep the off cuts in case you need to re-roll and then repeat with the other portions of dough. You should have around 30-36 circles.
Place one piece of marzipan and a little spoonful of the cherry mixture in the centre of each dough circle.
Fold each circle in half, and then bring the two points of the semi-circle together to make a petal shape.
Arrange the dough pieces around the edge of the tin in a circle, and then make more circles with the dough petals working into the centre. Cover loosely with clingfilm and leave to rise for 1 hour.
Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Brush the top of the bread with a little beaten egg and scatter with the demerara sugar. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown and baked all the way through. Serve!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Hazelnut Biscotti with a Chocolate Ganache and an Orange Curd

By Emma Hawkins | December 26, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

Happy Christmas for yesterday folks! I hope that where ever you are you had a lovely day and that you found some Christmas cheer. With all the festivities going on we can sometimes forget that this can be a very hard time of year for some people, especially those coping those with the loss of a loved one or a mental illness, so if you’re finding the season a little emotional warms hugs and best wishes are being sent your way – it will get better with time! x

From one celebration to another – New Years Eve! At the moment I have this little obsession with buying foreign food magazines when I’m abroad. The different cuisines are so interesting and although most of the time they’re in a different language, meaning I can’t read the writing, I love looking at the pictures and tying to work backwards to what the recipe might be. A few years ago I came across a page in an Italian magazine with two turquoise bowls, one filled with a thick brown ganache and another filled with a glossy orange curd looking substance. I immediately thought of these as being dipping accompaniments to some nutty biscuits, so a few years later here we are!

With the festive season drawing to a close all eyes now look forward to New Years eve, and these are perfect canape type thing for a party or gathering on the night! The biscotti can easily be picked up, dipped and eaten like sweet nachos in guacamole. Whilst it might seem like extra effort to make dipping sauces for biscuits, with these ones I’d seriously recommend you make the effort. Biscotti are crisp Italian biscuits which are twice baked and therefore without the sauces they can be a little too dry to be really enjoyable. However if the thought of new years mahem sends you into a spin you could serve these with some nutella, thinned out with a little double cream and some shop bought preserve or curd instead!

Recipe

Makes 20 biscuits

Time: 90 minutes

Ingredients

For the Biscotti

2 Medium eggs
100g Caster sugar
250g Plain flour
½ tsp Bicarbonate of soda
100g Chopped hazelnuts, plus extra to serve

For the Orange curd

40g Cornflour
3 Large Oranges
1 Lemon
300ml Water
3 Medium egg yolks
85g Caster sugar
50g Butter

For the Ganache

150g Double cream
130g Dark chocolate

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C and line two baking trays with baking paper.
Put the eggs into a bowl with some sugar and whisk together until pale a fluffy. Add the flour, bicarb, orange zest and hazelnuts and mix these into the egg mixture until a soft dough forms.
Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and shape it into 20cm long sausage (and as wide as you want the length your biscuits to be, I went for about 5 cm). Place the block onto a baking tray and then flatten it slightly. Bake the biscotti block in the oven for 25-30 minutes until starting to brown and go slightly crisp on the outside.
Take the block out of the oven and lower the oven temperature to 160˚C. Leave the biscuit to cool completely.
Place the biscuit block on a chopping board and slice it into 1cm wide biscuits.
Lay these biscuits flat on a baking tray and then bake for a further 10-15 minutes to crisp up. Leave to cool on a wire rack and then move onto the orange curd.
Put the cornflour, orange juice and zest, and the lemon juice and zest into a bowl and whisk to combine.
Next pour the water into a large pan and bring to the boil. Pour the hot water onto the citrus mix, whisking constantly, until combined.
Pour the orange mixture back into the pan and heat gently whilst stirring until the curd has thickened up. Take the pan off the heat and add the egg yolks, sugar and butter. Mix together with a whisk until the butter and sugar have dissolved. Then pour the curd into a jug and set aside for later.
Now make the ganache. Chop the chocolate up finely and put it into a bowl. Then pour the cream into a pan and bring to the boil. Take the cream off the heat and pour over the chocolate, stirring continuously until the chocolate has melted and a thick ganache has started to form. Transfer the ganache to a bowl for later.
When everything is ready serve the biscotti with the curd and ganache in little pots to dip into, and lots of coffee! Any leftover curd or ganache will keep in an airtight container for 2-3 days.

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Nutella Viennese Biscuits

By Emma Hawkins | December 16, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

I think there’s something very British about biscuits. We’ve got to the point in our culture where we have very little cuisine we can call our own other than that which we’ve appropriated from other cultures. But for some reason the hearty biscuit with a good cup of tea feels well and truly British. That said, alas, one of my favourite biscuits is the crumbly almighty Viennese biscuit, which guessing by the name is Austrian. I first came across these when I made them at school way back when. I remember them being a pain to pipe as the mixture was so solid, but they tasted divine. The other day I was re-acquainted with these in Sainsburys, this time sandwiched together with some chocolate, and I was reminded of just how good they are!

These are kind of like a more crumbly, lighter shortbread smothered in chocolate and hazelnuts – kinda like the biscuit equivalent of that perfect friend who not only is perfect but is also really nice so they’re impossible to hate. Simply put, these look amazing, taste incredible and have a texture to die for. As long as you don’t over work the mixture they’ll be as crumbly as an archaeological dig through a wet sand pit. They are a little hard to pipe to begin with, but persevere and the mixture will eventually warm up enough to pipe smoothly. If it’s really hard to begin with you might need to use scissors to chop the sticks of dough off the end of the pipping bag! I used Nutella in these as I was looking for something tasty and sticky to act as a ganache substitute in the middle (as I really didn’t want to have to bother with making something else to sandwhich them with) and it worked so so well!

Recipe

Makes 24

Time: 2 hours

Ingredients

200g Butter
50g Icing sugar
2 tsp Vanilla extract
200g Plain flour
2 tsp Cornflour
½ tsp Baking powder

For the filling

4 tbsp Nutella
100g Dark chocolate
50g Chopped hazelnuts

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Take a ruler and draw 24, 6cm lines on each sheet to act as your guides for later. Then turn the paper over so the lines are on the other side.
Put the butter and icing sugar into a large bowl and beat until pale and creamy. Add the vanilla and whisk again to combine.
Add the flour, cornflour and baking powder into the mixture until everything’s combined.
Spoon the dough into a pipping bag with a star shaped nozzle and pipe lines of the dough, using your lines you drew earlier as a guide.
Put the biscuits into freezer for about 10 minutes to set the shape. Then bake the biscuits for 10-12 minutes until pale golden and slightly crispy. Leave the biscuits to cool.
Spread or pipe a little of the Nutella over the base of half the biscuits. Then sandwich the covered biscuits with the non-covered biscuits.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of gently simmering water. Dip the edge of the biscuits in the chocolate and then dunk the biscuits in a bowl of chopped hazelnuts. Leave on some grease-proof paper to set and repeat with the rest of the biscuits.

Thanks for reading!

Emma x

Gingerbread Cake with Lemon Curd and Cream Cheese Icing

By Emma Hawkins | December 12, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

This might just be the most Christmasy thing I have ever made. Ginger is without a doubt the poster spice for the festive season and so ginger cake topped with a ginger bread house, little trees and a good dusting of icing sugar is pretty much an edible version of Lapland. This was really fun to make but it wasn’t without it’s faults. For example, I learnt things like:

Sometimes gingerbread can be too thick.
Don’t pipe icing that’s too runny onto a sloped surface. As much as you tell yourself it will succumb to the laws of gravity and drip sadly off the sides of your house, forming a pool of sugar tears next to it.
Even if your cakes are completely cool make sure your kitchen isn’t too hot when icing your cake. Those of you following my Instagram may have seen the effects of heat + cream cheese frosting with the image of my cake ‘rustically deconstructed’ across my kitchen table, where it slid whilst I was washing up.

So yeah, this didn’t go entirely to plan, but it still tasted amazing and I managed to get a few decent photos before it self deconstructed! As with all big cakes this can feed an army so it’s perfect for any Christmas parties or celebrations coming up.

Recipe

Serves 12

Time: 2 1/2 hours

Ingredients

For the cake

150g Butter
300g Self raising flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
4 tsp Ground ginger
2 tsp Ground mixed spice
1 tsp Ground cinnamon
150g Muscovado sugar
280g Golden syrup
300ml Whole milk
1 Large egg

For the gingerbread house

175g Dark muscovado sugar
85g Golden syrup
100g Butter
350g Plain flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp Ground ginger
1 tsp Ground cinnamon
1 Egg, beaten
200g Icing sugar

For the icing

150g Cream cheese
300ml Double cream
3 tbsp Icing sugar
1 tbsp Stem ginger syrup (optional)

For the decoration

4 tbsp Lemon curd
2 tbsp Caramel
A large pinch of Sea salt
Icing sugar for dusting

Method

Heat the oven to 180˚C. Grease and line 3, 20cm round tins with butter and baking paper.
Put the flour, bicarb, ginger and mixed spice into a large bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour with your fingers until there are no lumps.
Put the sugar, golden syrup and milk into a pan and heat gently until the sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally. Bring the mixture just up to the boil.
Pour the warm mixture into the dry mixture and whisk together. Add the egg and then mix in. The mixture should resemble a thick pancake batter.
Pour the mixture into the three lined tins (about 400g into each tin) and then bake in the oven for 50 minutes – 1 hour until baked all the way through. A skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean. Leave to cool until needed.
Now make the ginger bread house. Put the sugar, syrup and butter into a pan. Bring to a gentle simmer whilst stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Leave to bubble for 1-2 minutes and then leave to cool for 5-10 minutes.
Put the flour, bicarb and spices into a bowl. Add the egg, syrup mixture and stir together to form a soft dough.
Wrap the dough in cling film and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.
Take the dough out of the fridge and roll out between two sheets of clingfilm. You want it to be about half the thickness of a £1 coin. Using the templates (below) cut out the pieces of the house you need.
Place the pieces onto a lined baking tray and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until starting to slightly brown at the edges. Leave to cool before icing.
Mix the icing sugar and 2 tbsp water in a small bowl and then transfer it into a piping bag with a small round nozzle.
Pipe icing around the edge of your gingerbread pieces. Then join the four sides of the house together. Add the roof to the house and then decorate each panel how you want. Leave the house at room temperature for a couple of hours so that the icing has time to set.
Now make the filling. Put the cream cheese, cream, icing sugar, and ginger syrup (if using) into a big bowl and whisk together until it starts to hold its shape and is smooth. Then spoon the mixture into a piping with a large round nozzle. Keep chilled until needed.
When the cakes have cooled completely and your house is ready you can start assembling. Place one of the cakes on a plate or board. Spread over ½ the lemon curd and then pipe blobs of the icing over the sponge. Then drizzle 1/3 of the caramel over the icing.
Place another sponge on top and repeat with the icing and caramel. Then finish by putting the last sponge on top.
Pipe the rest of the icing in blobs over the top of the cake. Spoon the rest of the caramel over the icing, letting it drip over the edge.
Top with the mini ginger bread house, any Christmas decorations you like and a sprinkling of icing sugar!